A recent headline from PsyBlog, “How Long-Term Stress Causes Serious Mental Disorders,” really caught my attention. Just about everyone I know is stressed these days, especially at work. And while stress doesn’t feel good, the idea that it could actually cause someone to develop a mental disorder is too much. I get stressed just thinking about it.

Traditionally, talk about diversity in the workplace has focused on inclusion of people of color and women, particularly within the management ranks.

And despite how far we’ve come, there’s still a need for those conversations.

Just last month, Catalyst, a nonprofit organization with a mission to “expand opportunities for women and business,” reported that women hold only “4.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEO positions and 5.1 percent of Fortune 1000 CEO positions."

Every leader has a leadership style. And leadership styles have consequences.

According to PayScale’s 2014 Compensation Best Practices report, most employees leave their jobs for “personal reasons” or for higher pay. Pay is important, of course. Despite how much we may like our jobs, if our employers couldn’t pay us, we’d likely quit.

Companies are struggling to increase employee engagement. According to the Bureau of National Affairs, companies are losing an estimated 11 billion dollars a year on unengaged employees. With a staggering figure like that companies are still not taking the appropriate steps to engage their employees. Failed perk programs, lack of trust from employee to employer, and no real roadmap to increased engagement is creating a lazy and uninterested workforce.

Companies have been failing their employees for decades. With the incredibly talented talent pool companies are struggling to keep their top performers for several reasons. Companies that fail to engage their workforce will continue to bleed good talent. Here are four common reasons that companies fail to engage their workforce.

According to a recent Gallup poll, 86% of engaged employees say they very often feel happy at work, as against 11% of the disengaged and 45% of the engaged say they get a great deal of their life happiness from work, against 8% of the disengaged. It’s no secret that a happy and engaged employee will stay with your company for a long time. Numbers don’t lie and as you can see from the stat above, 86% of engaged employees are happy at work. This number proves that engaged employees is your key to a strong retention rate.

Let’s face it, managers love when employees make it in to work early. They get to walk in the door and see that many of their team members have already gotten a “jump start” on the heavy work load for the day. Apparently having the ability to roll out of bed at an earlier hour equals greater praise from managers. These early risers are the individuals who are regarded as disciplined and dedicated overachievers, but do employees who work late nights get the same recognition? Not in the slightest.

One of the latest trends in employee compensation and motivation is giving employees four (small) raises a year as opposed to one large raise. Many companies have become strong proponents of this innovative payment strategy and executives are dumping the annual salary review in favor of giving out raises and bonuses a couple times per year. This begs the question, are quarterly raises a good idea for your company?

With all the information that’s “out there” on your potential new hire, it’s tempting to do a little snooping. After all, a new hire is a risk. Taking steps to mitigate that risk just makes good sense, right?

Every employer wants top talent, right? Top talent gets stuff done and without a lot of fanfare. Top talent is creative, flexible, and reliant. Top talent consistently delights. Who wouldn’t want that?

Now here’s another question. Would you (or your representative) be able to identify top talent during a job interview?

A 2012 survey by Leadership IQ, a research and management consulting firm, found that nearly 46 percent of all new hires fail within the first 18 months of accepting the new job. Forty-six percent.

When you type in the words employee motivation into Google's search bar, an overabundance of articles pop up suggesting ways to coax your disengaged employees to “check back in”. You read article after article and the themes seem to get a bit redundant to say the least. If you are an experienced manager or executive, chances are you have a good grasp on what works in terms of keeping motivation in your office alive. Still there are a lot of ideas floating around out there about how to maintain employee’s desire to keep doing phenomenal work for your company. What most fail to mention in their articles however are employee motivation strategies that don’t work.

We live in a world plagued with technology. Everywhere you go people are staring down at their smartphones with such a fixed focus that you would think they were expecting a call telling them they had just won the lottery. Even in a professional office environment, it is borderline impossible avoid being bombarded with Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Lately, technology has gotten a bad rap for inhibiting the quality of personal interactions however; there is a major upside to our digitally oriented society that is being greatly underutilized. Recruiting.

But the EBRI also reports that “worker savings remain low, and only a minority appear to be taking basic steps. This increased confidence is observed almost exclusively among those with higher household income … [and is] strongly correlated with household participation in a retirement plan.”

When Generation X entered the workforce, they brought a new attitude, new expectations and new motivators than we had ever seen from their baby boomer parents. There were many factors that shaped these traits, but we can largely thank their boomer parents for what Gen X needs in an employer and what satisfies them at work.

Whistleblower laws aren’t the way to more ethical companies, he says. Instead, leadership needs to develop a culture that encourages employees to speak up—as a matter of course—about all the “minor” transgressions occurring in workplaces every day. When that happens, Grenny hypothesizes, major ethical breaches will be less likely to occur.

They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. If candidates blow a major interview and somehow manage to still get hired for a position then the company is either A) desperate or B) knows that they have a track record of proven success. If they are lucky enough to be able to kick down the door to great jobs based on experience alone, kudos to them. For the rest of the candidates out there, making a great first impression will determine their fate not only in regards to getting the job but also the attitude the employer will have towards them throughout their tenure at the company.

During the crash of 2009 almost all industries faced a serious decline in revenue resulting in some substantial cut backs when it came to employee’s benefits packages; at least, for the employees that companies were able to keep. Long hours, making up for the work of their laid off co-workers, and reduced vacation time became the standard for employees in still in the workplace. Fortunately, the recuperation of the market means that things are finally looking up for dedicated workers. Still, job security is the top priority for employees who have to bring home the bacon and take care of their families. But are companies taking advantage of the fact that employees are willing to work harder for less to maintain their jobs?